London Gatwick airport suffers 5% passenger decline amid US-Iran war

London Gatwick on Wednesday said the conflict in the Middle East and reduced capacity by budget carriers resulted in a nearly 5% fall in passengers passing through the south England airport.

Gatwick is 50.01% owned by Vinci Airports, part of Paris-based infrastructure construction and management company Vinci SA. The other 49.99% is owned by investor Global Infrastructure Partners, part of New York-based private equity firm BlackRock Inc.

Gatwick said it handled 19.1 million passengers in the first half of 2026, down 4.7% from a year before.

This was driven by a decline in short-haul passengers, the mainstay of the airport, by 700,000, or 3.9%, to 16.2 million from 16.9 million. Long-haul passenger numbers decreased by 200,000, or 9.2%, to 2.9 million from 3.1 million.

Passengers travelling to and from Northern Africa fell by 100,000, while those flying to and from the Middle East and Central Asia fell by 200,000. Meanwhile, passengers for Europe were down by 600,000 and for North America down by 200,000.

Gatwick said concerns about fuel supplies likely affected passenger behaviour, but it said there have been no issue with fuel supplies so far.

Revenue rose by 4.8% to £515.2 million in the six months that ended June 30 from £491.4 million a year before, lifting earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation by 5.5% to £276.5 million. Operating profit similarly was up 4.7% to £197.2 million from £188.4 million.

However, pretax profit fell by 18% to £136.5 million from £166.2 million due to a swing to a fair value loss on derivative financial instruments of £17.1 million from a gain of £12.0 million a year before.

Looking ahead to the second half of 2026 and the Winter 2026 season, Gatwick noted a number of new and retained routes. In particular, Jet2 PLC will operate 24 winter destinations, as the holiday airline ramps up its newly established operations at Gatwick. British Airways, part of International Consolidated Airlines Group SA, will start services to Colombo, Sri Lanka and Bridgetown, Barbados from Gatwick this winter.

"Despite a challenging geopolitical and economic backdrop, London Gatwick has continued to perform well, grow its network and deliver a world-class service for passengers," Chief Executive Pierre Hugues-Schmit said.

"We are also excited about our longer-term growth opportunities and with the legal process for the Northern Runway Programme now complete, we can turn our focus from planning to detailed design work and delivery."

The Northern Runway Programme is the airport's proposal to bring its emergency runway into routine use alongside the current main runway. This was approved by US Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander in September last year. A court challenge by campaigners was dismissed in June.

Vinci shares were up 0.3% to EUR120.00 in Paris on Wednesday morning.

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